BaseballLate homers lift Cincinnati

GREENVILLE — Back-to-back home runs by Connor McVey and Manny Rodriguez for Cincinnati in the top of the ninth lifted the Bearcats to a 4-3 American Athletic Conference win at East Carolina in the series opener on Friday night.

The duo connected on successive pitches to erase a 3-2 Pirates lead provided by an RBI double from Turner Brown that brought in Jeremy Whitehead in the eighth.

Left-hander Ryan Ross (1-4) took the loss.

ECU (35-13, 11-8 AAC) went ahead 2-0 on a two-run homer by Dwanya Williams-Sutton in the first.

The Bearcats (26-22, 11-8) drew even at 2 on a solo homer by Treg Haberkorn in the second and an RBI single by A,J. Bumpass in the fifth.

Cincinnati had a 12-9 lead in hits as Bumpass, who played at Northern Durham, went 3-for-5. Kyle Mottice, McVey, Rodriguez and Eric Santiago had two hits each.

Connor Litton and Brady Lloyd each went 2-for-4 for ECU. Litton had a fly ball to the warning track in left in the bottom of the ninth.